Monte Blue
Monte Blue (January 11, 1887 – February 18, 1963) was a movie actor who began his career as a romantic leading man in the silent film era, and later progressed to character roles.
Blue was born as Gerard Montgomery Bluefeather in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was half French, half Cherokee Indian. One of five children, his father died and his mother could not raise five children alone. Along with another brother, they both admitted to the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home. This did not stop him working his way through to Purdue University.
When growing up, Blue built up his physique to become a football player (he grew to six feet three inches tall). He not only played football, but he was also a fireman, railroad worker, coal miner, cowpuncher, ranch hand, circus rider, lumberjack, and finally, a day laborer at the studios of D. W. Griffith.
He had no theatrical experience when he came to the screen. In his first movie, The Birth of a Nation (1915), he was a stuntman and an extra in the movie. In his next movie, he starred in another small part in the movie, Intolerance (1916). Gradually moving to supporting roles for both D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, Blue earned his breakthrough role as Danton in Orphans of the Storm, starring sisters, Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. Then he rose to stardom as a rugged romantic lead along with top leading actresses such as Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Norma Shearer. His most prolific female screen partner was Marie Prevost with whom he made several films in the mid 20s at Warner Brothers. Blue's finest silent screen performance was as the alcoholic doctor who finds paradise in MGM's White Shadows in the South Seas (1928). Blue became one of the few silent stars to survive the talkie revolution. However, he lost his investments in the stock market crash of 1929.
He rebuilt his career as a character actor, working until his retirement in 1954. One of his more memorable roles was the sheriff in Key Largo. He divorced his first wife in 1923 and married Tova Jansen in 1924. He had two children, Barbara Ann and Richard Monte. During the later part of his life, Monte Blue was an active Mason and the advance man for the Hamid-Morton Shrine Circus; while on business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he had a heart attack because of complications from influenza, dying at age 76.
Monte Blue has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6286 Hollywood Blvd.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Monte Blue, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography (234 Appearances)
Rawhide
26 Men
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Apache
Adventures of the Texas Kid: Border Ambush
Ride, Vaquero!
The Last Posse
Hangman's Knot
Trail of the Arrow
Mr. & Mrs. North
This Is Your Life
Rose of Cimarron
Warpath
The Sea Hornet
Gold Raiders
Snake River Desperadoes
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Three Desperate Men
So You Want to Hold Your Husband
This Side of the Law
The Iroquois Trail
Backfire
The Blonde Bandit
Ranger of Cherokee Strip
The Big Wheel
The Lone Ranger
The Fountainhead
Colorado Territory
The Younger Brothers
Homicide
South of St. Louis
Flaxy Martin
Adventures of Don Juan
Johnny Belinda
Two Guys from Texas
Key Largo
Silver River
Life with Father
The Unfaithful
Cheyenne
Possessed
Stallion Road
Bells of San Fernando
Humoresque
The Time, The Place and The Girl
The Man I Love
Never Say Goodbye
So You Want to Play the Horses
Shadow of a Woman
Two Guys from Milwaukee
Cinderella Jones
San Antonio
Frontier Days
Danger Signal
The Horn Blows at Midnight
The Mask of Dimitrios
Trial by Trigger
Northern Pursuit
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Action in the North Atlantic
Mission to Moscow
Edge of Darkness
Truck Busters
Casablanca
The Hard Way
Why We Fight: Divide and Conquer
Gentleman Jim
Road to Morocco
The Hidden Hand
I Married a Witch
Secret Enemies
Across the Pacific
My Favorite Blonde
Klondike Fury
The Remarkable Andrew
Treat 'Em Rough
North to the Klondike
Pacific Blackout
Law of the Timber
The Great Man's Lady
New York Town
King of the Texas Rangers
Bad Man of Deadwood
Sunset in Wyoming
Riders of Death Valley
Scattergood Pulls the Strings
The Great Train Robbery
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Mystery Sea Raider
North West Mounted Police
Young Bill Hickok
Road to Singapore
Days of Jesse James
Geronimo
Our Leading Citizen
Port of Hate
Juarez
Union Pacific
Frontier Pony Express
Dodge City
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Hawk of the Wilderness
Illegal Traffic
King of Alcatraz
The Mysterious Rider
Touchdown, Army
Rebellious Daughters
The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Cocoanut Grove
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Born to the West
Amateur Crook
Hell Town
Sky Racket
Souls at Sea
Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Secret Agent X-9
A Million to One
Ride, Ranger, Ride
Song of the Gringo
Mary of Scotland
Prison Shadows
Sharad of Atlantis
Treachery Rides the Range
Desert Gold
Nevada
Wanderer of the Wasteland
Trails of the Wild
The Test
'G' Men
Social Error
On Probation
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Student Tour
Wagon Wheels
The Last Round-up
Come On, Marines!
Her Forgotten Past
The Intruder
Buffalo Stampede
Officer Thirteen
The Stoker
The Flood
Those Who Dance
Isle of Escape
Tiger Rose
The Show of Shows
Skin Deep
From Headquarters
No Defense
The Greyhound Limited
Conquest
White Shadows in the South Seas
Across the Atlantic
Brass Knuckles
One-Round Hogan
Life in Hollywood No. 4
The Bush Leaguer
The Black Diamond Express
Bitter Apples
The Brute
Wolf's Clothing
Across the Pacific
So This Is Paris
Other Women's Husbands
The Man Upstairs
Hogan's Alley
Red Hot Tires
The Limited Mail
Kiss Me Again
Recompense
The Dark Swan
The Lover of Camille
Her Marriage Vow
Being Respectable
Revelation
Daughters of Pleasure
How to Educate a Wife
Mademoiselle Midnight
The Marriage Circle
Loving Lies
Lucretia Lombard
Defying Destiny
The Purple Highway
Main Street
Brass
Broadway Rose
My Old Kentucky Home
Peacock Alley
Orphans of the Storm
The Affairs of Anatol
Moonlight and Honeysuckle
A Broken Doll
A Perfect Crime
The Kentuckians
The Jucklins
Something to Think About
A Cumberland Romance
The 13th Commandment
Everywoman
Too Much Johnson
In Mizzoura
Told in the Hills
Rustling a Bride
Pettigrew's Girl
Romance and Arabella
The Squaw Man
The Romance of Tarzan
Riders of the Night
The Goddess of Lost Lake
100% American
Johanna Enlists
Till I Come Back to You
Hands Up
The Only Road
M'Liss
The Red, Red Heart
The Man from Painted Post
Wild and Woolly
Hands Up!
Betsy's Burglar
Jim Bludso
The Matrimaniac
The Microscope Mystery
The Vagabond Prince
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
The Devil's Needle
Martyrs of the Alamo
The Noon Hour
Ghosts
The Birth of a Nation